Pay hikes amid layoffs

Published 12:00 am, Thursday, January 13, 2011

ALBANY -- Every New York governor for the last decade has grappled with at least one scandal or controversy involving the top brass of the State Police. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is off to an early start.

While $600,000 worth of last-minute raises that top officials with the State Police received last month came in the waning days of the Paterson administration, Cuomo has inherited the problem, which is already turning political as unions and lawmakers cranked up their criticism on Wednesday.

"I was surprised and I was shocked -- as were most New Yorkers," Cuomo said of the raises. The governor said he would be reviewing the pay hikes, which he said were "problematic" and "insensitive," in coming weeks.

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The raises were first reported Tuesday night on WNYT Ch. 13, which found that 28 State Police officials -- including inspectors as well as deputy and assistant deputy superintendents -- got the increases last month.

All of the officials had been earning at least $153,000. The increases ranged from $28,077 to $28,502 .

Cuomo said he was unsure if all the raises could be reversed.

Reaction by Capitol players was harsh and swift. "They gave themselves raises on the ninth (of December) and they handed all my guys (layoff) letters on the 10th," said Al Christian, union steward for the Capitol's security screeners, 40 of whom were laid off. The screeners were part of the State Police for the purposes of layoffs.

Without the screeners who operate metal detectors at the Capitol complex, an entrance on the State Street side of the Legislative Office Building is being closed to the public. Additionally, higher-paid troopers are now manning the guard shacks to underground parking entrances.

The president of New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, the union which represents the screeners, said in a prepared statement that the raises were symptomatic of top-heavy management.

"The fact that management is seeking and receiving huge pay raises while 60 percent of the security force at our State's Capitol were laid off last month speaks to how upside down Albany's priorities have become in recent years," Donn Rowe said. "As we have seen time and again, when you sacrifice personnel to keep a bloated management system in place you undermine everyone's safety."

"What happens with these administrators is they always justify giving more money to their top employees -- who are in fact their friends that they work with -- and then they go down and fire the screeners," said Assemblyman Bob Reilly, D-Colonie.

Reilly serves on the Assembly's Investigations and Government Operations Committee, which has some level of oversight for state agencies, including State Police. Some of his constituents are civilian State Police employees laid off last month as part of Paterson's mandated downsizing of 891 state workers.

The raises were handed out on the watch of then-Acting Superintendent John Melville, who has since been replaced by Cuomo's choice for superintendent, Joseph D'Amico.

Although the holder of that position would be in line for an especially hefty raise, D'Amico -- who followed Cuomo from the Attorney General's office -- will have his salary lowered to $136,000, officials said Wednesday. That sum is in line with the earlier pay scale.

Nozzolio said he doubted the affair would derail D'Amico's confirmation by the Senate, but he left the door open when asked if he believed Melville should be fired, given how much the raises were at odds with Cuomo's call for an employee pay freeze.

"I think (Melville) is so disconnected with some realities that's what should happen, yes," Reilly said when asked if the acting superintendent should go.

Melville and other State Police officials referred questions to the governor's Budget Division.

In arguing for the raises, State Police officials said contractual pay raises for unionized majors brought some of their salaries to $170,756 -- above that of their supervisors. It's a situation that's not unknown in state government.

Trouble in the top ranks of the State Police has brought repeated grief to governors in recent years.

During the Paterson administration, the former governor drew harsh criticism and legal scrutiny after reports emerged that the head of his security detail, Maj. Charles Day, improperly intervened in an alleged domestic violence incident between Paterson aide David Johnson and his then-girlfriend. Johnson was later fired, and Day reassigned.

Before that, Gov. Eliot Spitzer saw much of his tenure enveloped in a long-running battle in which Republicans charged him with improperly using State Police to keep track of his rival, Sen. Republican Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno.

And Gov. George Pataki in 2003 was blasted after Daniel Wiese, the head of his security detail, retired and quickly became inspector general for the state Power Authority, allowing him to collect a $160,000 salary on top of his pension. It was one of the first high-profile examples of "double dipping," in which officials retire with generous pensions but then go back to work in government.